Legislative Assembly photo

Roles

In the Legislative Assembly

Elsewhere

Crucial Fact

Historical Information Alfred Moses is no longer a member of the Legislative Assembly.

Last in the Legislative Assembly September 2019, as MLA for Inuvik Boot Lake

Won his last election, in 2015, with 89% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Addressing Root Causes Of Homelessness In All Communities February 12th, 2012

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement today is going to be in regard to one of the Minister’s statements last week in regard to a strong, very heavy contribution that was made to the City of Yellowknife here. It is in regard to shelters in the communities of the Northwest Territories.

As great as it sounds for Yellowknife to have this shelter brought forth into our territory and help those people that are in need, we also have to look at adjusting the root causes and the issues. As long as this government doesn’t address those issues or those root causes that put our people into these shelters or make people go to these shelters, we are going to continue to have this problem. We are going to have to continue more infrastructure building to house these people in the communities that come from the communities who are either running away from very harmful relationships or who are having problems in the communities not having adequate housing.

We need to work together. This government needs to work together. Department and departments, when we build infrastructure, that we have programs to go alongside it. If we create programs, we have to have the infrastructure to house those programs to benefit the people of the Northwest Territories. Right now I think our government needs some work in that area. I think this government’s 17th Assembly should be addressing that over the

next four years so that our people don’t suffer anymore. When we put our money out there to build these things, we should do it in the best way and for the best way for the people of the Northwest Territories.

I was really glad to hear of the Minister of Health’s statement earlier today, that we need some focus on prevention and promotion. I will have some questions for him later on today in regard to that area and possibly changing up some of our policies so that people of the Northwest Territories, our non-government organizations, our people who are working on the front lines have adequate resources and funding to put these programs into place to help these people that are in dire straits in these shelters. That is it, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Question 47-17(2): Homelessness Issues In Regional Centres February 9th, 2012

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister please provide me with information on any of these groups? Have any of these groups approached his department to seek this kind of funding?

Question 47-17(2): Homelessness Issues In Regional Centres February 9th, 2012

In terms of the contribution that was given to the Yellowknife Homelessness Coalition of $2.3 million that he had stated earlier, it is quite a bit of money and I know it will go to a good use. As the contribution as such, would the department be looking at developing some kind of contribution to get these groups started up into developing a plan that can eventually lead to these kinds of infrastructures such as the Betty House? If there is already a contribution program in place, can the Minister describe what that contribution is?

Question 47-17(2): Homelessness Issues In Regional Centres February 9th, 2012

Thanks to the Minister for his comments. I’d like to ask the Minister, has the department of housing taken the initiative to speak with these interested groups in the regions and given them advice and some support and motivation to move to this next step of building the infrastructure in these communities so our people

who are in dire straits and on the streets have a place to go.

Question 47-17(2): Homelessness Issues In Regional Centres February 9th, 2012

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of Housing with regard to his Minister’s statement that he gave earlier today. Before I begin I just want to commend all the hard work that the department of housing has been doing with the Yellowknife Homelessness Coalition and the creation of the Betty House. However, you have to understand that homelessness is more than a Yellowknife issue; we see it in all our communities. We see it more in the regional centres. I want to ask the Minister what work has been done in the regional centres such as Inuvik, Hay River, Fort Smith and Fort Simpson to deal with the homelessness issues that are arising in those communities as well.

NWT Ski Week February 9th, 2012

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. All week we’ve been hearing news reports on CBC in the mornings, of the Ski Week and all the work that’s been going into promoting people getting active and enjoying the outdoors and living a healthy lifestyle.

As you know, skiing has a strong history in the Northwest Territories, specifically with the Territorial Experimental Ski Training program. At this time I’d just like to acknowledge two of those participants that took part in the program: Ms. Sharon Firth and Ms. Shirley Firth-Larsson, who also just received the Diamond Jubilee Medal this week, earlier this week. They are both great ambassadors of not only the NWT but both live healthy, active lifestyles and are a role model to our Aboriginal youth and people in the Northwest Territories to get out, be active, follow your dreams and to participate in such programs as Ski NWT.

I’d also like to take this time to recognize that Ski NWT and skiing has a strong presence in the community of Fort McPherson, where they have a lot of strong snow-shoers and skiers that participate and will be going to the Arctic Winter Games. I would just like to recognize the group that are working there, the volunteers, the coaches and the families that support small communities.

Just with the Arctic Winter Games team coming up this year, we noticed that all of the Ski NWT team outside of Yellowknife are a strong contingent and only from one community, and that is Fort McPherson. We have to recognize the strong work that is going on there as well.

At this time I’d also like to recognize the NWT Rec and Parks Association on their efforts to initiate the Mackenzie River Walking Challenge, which is also getting people out and being active. As well, as Members of this Assembly and staff to get out, put a few minutes in, a few kilometres, you know, on their shoes to live a healthy, active lifestyle so that

we can make the best decisions in this House for the people of the Northwest Territories.

With that said, Sunday is NWT Ski Day across the Northwest Territories and I invite all Members to come out to the YK Ski Club and participate in being active, living healthy and supporting all of these great programs that Sport North and NWTRPA have initiated in the NWT. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Committee Motion 2-17(2): Resume Consideration Of Item No. 11, Department Of Transportation, Interim Appropriation 2012-2013, Carried February 8th, 2012

I appreciate the comments. No further comments or questions, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Committee Motion 2-17(2): Resume Consideration Of Item No. 11, Department Of Transportation, Interim Appropriation 2012-2013, Carried February 8th, 2012

I do agree; the contractors did a great job of opening up the highways again. I do look forward to looking at those provisions for any of our contractors, regardless of whether it’s snow removal or even airport services that do exhaust their budgets, how this government can support those contractors to keep the roads open and the ground transportation feasible for when people need to travel them, especially in emergency situations.

Just a second question, for municipalities that have their own budget for road clearance within our boundaries that the government doesn’t really put a budget into, is there a specific type of budget that can help in an emergency situation such as Inuvik when a lot of our roads were not usable for the whole week pretty well? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Committee Motion 2-17(2): Resume Consideration Of Item No. 11, Department Of Transportation, Interim Appropriation 2012-2013, Carried February 8th, 2012

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is once again in regard to the access to some of our surrounding communities in the Beaufort-Delta region.

As most of you are aware, a lot of our schools were shut down and even some of our communities were shut down during a big blizzard that we had just most recently. Just wondering if there was any special assistance outside of the ice roads and the transportation to the communities, which do rely I wouldn’t say heavily, but do rely on some of the services that are provided by Inuvik. When our contractors run over their budget, if there’s some kind of special budget that is put in place for not only the contractors on the highways and the ice roads but even for our municipal contractors when a town gets shut down because of high snowdrifts. That does cause emergency situations where if somebody needs to go to the hospital of if there is an RCMP emergency, something’s going on that does need to be addressed, and when we have high snowdrifts and lack of ground transportation to get to these communities or even into some of the places in our community, how those are addressed. Last year we had a blizzard that was very similar that pretty well shut down the whole community. This time it lasted for a whole week rather than just a couple of days.

Looking into that and looking at our patterns for the last few years, if you can call it a pattern, this is something that we might be looking at again in the future, and we want to see if we can address this in the budget for next year, even to the end of this fiscal year, making sure that there is money available should something like this happen again. We don’t want to be stuck in the cold when our contractors and our departments have no further

money to reach some of the people in the communities or even get services to them.

Even on the ice roads there was some single-lane traffic, which does become very dangerous, especially with some of the big trucks that are commuting on the highways there. Just a comment on what we’ve seen up in the Beaufort-Delta the last couple of years and making sure that we do have access to our surrounding communities, specifically Aklavik, Tuktoyaktuk, Tsiigehtchic and Fort McPherson. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Question 29-17(2): Moratorium On Evictions Due To Public Housing Arrears February 8th, 2012

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This last question deals with the tenants that have not gone into a repayment plan. Do we have a number of tenants across the Northwest Territories who will possibly become evicted April 1

st that will result in

some of our other programs being accessed such as income support? Does he have a number of tenants that are possibly going to be evicted come April 1

st ? Thank you.